Read this article of how Imelda Marcos used the terno into creating an identity for herself in politics.

And make sure to pay this flickr page a visit. Beautiful old photographs that show how the Traje de Mestiza evolved into the Terno. Some examples:

The big bulky shape is some sort of furniture with small wheels.

Picture:

Ondoy 2009 typhoon; destroyed irrigation at Bacacay Bicol.

An example of the foods I’ve had the last two days.

Auntie Auring brought some sumang for me and a neighbor from across the street made some sugar rice for me.

I found out they also have mangosteen here, which I always buy when in China.

One of the things I’m researching is the balikbayan box. The balikbayan box is a box filled with goods and products that is being send back home. Under the reign of Marcos many Filipinos left the country. The government took on a law that allowed people to send goods back home tax-free. These days there are many balikbayan box companies and about anything that fits in the box is being send.

Important is the balikbayan boxes’ role in the practise of pasalubong, where returnees are culturally expected to bring home gifts to family, friends and colleagues.

To get a little more insight as to what people are sending, to where and the importance of the balikbayan box to Philippine culture I set up an online survey. If you happen to be Filipino or have friends that are Filipino please send them this link so they can participate:

www.nadineshows.com/balikbayanboxsurvey

Picture of the goods in the balikbayan box send by my mother-in-law to my aunt in Manila.

Many migrant workers in Beijing carry a certain type of bag made of duvet covers or other leftover textiles. The shape of the bag is as simple as it is ingenious. It solely consists of one rectangular piece of textile and features only two seams. Folded crosswise, the textile creates a bag which surprisingly holds a lot of volume, making it the perfect bag for workers who carry a great deal of luggage when coming to the city in search of employment.

I appropriated this design vernacular to create a series of bags.

The textile chosen for the bags are repurposed red banners which are ubiquitous in China. The standard dimensions of the banners also makes it a suitable choice for this type of bag. Used mostly for restaurant advertisements, messages of celebration from companies or schools, or for government regulation propaganda, it seems a perfect choice to make this makeshift bag from the leftovers of Chinese urban life.

In China, when I would ask if I could take a picture of somebody or something, the answer I heard the most was: ‘maybe’. I soon discovered that in China ‘maybe’ is used in a different way than in the West. Sometimes ‘maybe’ is used as a polite way of saying ‘no’. But on other occasions people really just mean ‘maybe’. ‘Maybe Beijing’, the name of the bag, refers to the opportunity Beijing promises to all who arrive there. ‘Maybe Beijing’ also stands for the dream of enriching your life and becoming prosperous.

Origin of the banners: NCUT (North China University of Technology) used to advertise the student ping pong tournament; Beijing Medical School, used to celebrate the 90 year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party; various restaurants throughout Beijing, used for promotional announcements.

see also: The Floating Population & After Hour Shopping Mall

NP3 | Hofstraat 21 | 9712 JA | Groningen | 050-3138260| www.np3.nu

The area around the steel factories of Cockerill-Sambre, Liege. As a kid I spend a lot of time in Belgium, I grew up 20 km from the Dutch-Belgium-German border. Crossing the border to the German site never made a big impact on me as a kid. It more or less looked the same. But crossing the Belgium border was something totally different. First city you hit, Visé, already felt like a far away country. To me, as a kid, it felt like something was really really wrong here. Later I came to appreciate the history of the area around Liege and it’s importance it once had.